14 AMATEUR RODMAKING 



rods were made in Great Britain. There solid 

 wood rods were the favorites; in fact with 

 the exception of rods made with spliced cane 

 and whalebone tips the only rods used until a 

 comparatively short time ago, when the rent 

 and glued cane rods invented and made by 

 Americans were adopted abroad. Even to- 

 day solid wood rods are extensively used in 

 Great Britain. Their manufacturers have 

 never been very successful in competing with 

 the best American hexagonal split bamboo rods, 

 and some of their fly-rods are made up from 

 split-and-glued material purchased in the 

 United States and sold as English rods. 

 High grade American split bamboo rods, too, 

 are well known and liked over there. 



Hickory has been largely used in England 

 for parts of medium and heavy fly-rods, the 

 material being shipped from the United States 

 and Canada in billet form. Other materials 

 are: Ash, lancewood, whalebone and cane 

 combined; ash and lancewood in combination; 

 willow, blue mahoe, washaba (our bethabara), 

 whole cane, greenheart, and greenheart and 

 whole cane combined. For a number of years 

 greenheart alone, or greenheart in combina- 

 tion with whole cane, was a standard rod ma- 

 terial there, but this is of comparatively recent 

 adoption, as angling writers of fifty years ago 



